A Literary Magazine in Support of the Jewish Community
Ectopic
my brother-in-law
once had a tumour
under his tongue
as a smoker
he thought
he was done for
when the surgeon
had a good
long look and said
it’s ectopic
tonsil tissue
you’re fine
my brother-in-law
retold this story
at Shabbat dinner
the night before
the first hostages
were to be released
and this time
the story caught me
differently
I thought aloud
to no one
to everyone
that’s
what we are
as Jews
ectopic
present everywhere
we shouldn’t be
which seems to be
everywhere
we are
Andrew Harris
Andrew Harris was born in Johannesburg and is based in Melbourne. His poetry has been anthologised in the Australian Catholic University's Poetry Prize's 2024 collection, Faith, and in Writing for Peace's 2020 collection Resistance. Andrew has won the Melbourne Lord Mayor's Creative Writing Awards Dorothy Porter Prize for Poets twice, in 2017 and 2020.
